5 Ways Music Has Influenced Art

A process of utmost importance in the development of a person, the audio-visual pairing of music and art not just stimulate our creativity, but actually makes us better people. In several recent scientific studies, researchers found the certain parts of our brains only respond to music and/or art. The studies have also shown the immense positive impact they have on social, emotional, and cognitive skills, especially in children and young adults. Still, there is a growing rift between the two in many cases. Largely unintended and mostly because of market forces along with changing demographics, both entities have pulled away from one another even more in the past decades or so. But the death of The Velvet Underground‘s frontman Lou Reed back in October highlighted the often-inexplicable connection between music and art. Here, are our top five list. To see more examples of how music influenced art, check out the Boost Mobile Worlds Collide site for details

1. The Velvet Underground & Nico album cover art by Andy Warhol
The recent death of Lou Reed had us re-examine the dynamic relationship between his band, The Velvet Underground, and pop-art icon Andy Warhol. For the band’s debut album, Warhol created a cover art full of subversive (and sexual) message. On the original version, the now famous “yellow banana” cover was actually a peel-off sticker, revealing flesh-colored version underneath instead.

2. The Man with the Iron Fists by RZA of Wu-Tang Clan
With a star-studded cast from Academy-Award winning actor Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, professional wrestler David Bautista, Jamie Chung and more…RZA crossed several genres, including martial arts traditions and hip-hop lores, to create The Man with the Iron Fists.

3. Pharrell Williams and Daniel Arsham Collaboration
Making art from everyday objects, the burnt keyboards by Pharrell Williams and artist Daniel Arsham signified how Williams now feels about his musical endeavors. Or it could be just something fun to make…

4. Beyoncé’s New Visual Album
Even a week later, folks are still talking about Beyoncé‘s new visual album. In fact, MTV boldly proclaimed it to be the music industry’s savior.

5. Jay Z x Marina Abramovic – “Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film”
Of course, not far from Beyoncé is hubbie Jay Z, who took an experimental leap in terms of performance when he partnered with artist Marina Abramovic for an improv event at the Pace Gallery earlier this year. While the performance took over 6 hours, award winning director Mark Romanek was able to narrow all of it to just 10 minutes as a music video form…